Abdelkader Bengrina, the man who started “The national initiative for strengthening cohesion and securing the future” has failed in trying to include the political opposition in his “internal front”.

The event, which took place Saturday, August 19 at the Abdellatif Rahal international conférences center (CIC) in Algiers, did not even see the participation of MSP (Movement for the society of peace) despite the party being on the same ideological side as Bengrina’s El Bina.

Abdelali Hassani’s party suspects – and might even have discovered – electoral intentions behind Bengrina’s initiative. Having taken part in early June 2023 in the very first consultation meeting around El Bina’s initiative, MSP quickly distanced itself from it. Abderrahmane Saidi, one of the string figures of MSP, thinks Bengrina’s initiative is “hollow” and does not define any perspective, but Abdelali Hassani has clearly accused El Bina’s leader of wanting to “use the initiative as a stepping stone for the 2024 electoral perspective”, meaning the presidential election.

There was no MSP delegation at CIC on Saturday. Neither was there one from FJD (The front for justice and development). The two islamist parties feel more serene staying far than being close to El Bina which they suspect of lacking autonomy and working for an agenda that cannot be theirs and to which they don’t want to subscribe.

The democratic opposition did not bother showing up at CIC neither. Neither RCD (Rassemblement pour la culture et la démocratie) nor FFS (Front of socialist forces), nor PT (Workers’ party) took part in the conference that Bengrina initiated. FLN, RND, TAJ, Al Moustakbal and ANR were there. Some other acronyms, much less visible on the political scene, were also present… for the numbers.

When it comes to professional organizations and civil society, the same entities that were previously supporting Bouteflika and his regime have also accepted Bengrina’s invitation. There was UGTA, UNPA, ONEC, ONM, CGEA and a myriad of small organizations. All these formations have embarked on a political adventure the contours of which are not difficult to see.

It only takes hearing Bengrina speak in order to understand the objectives of “the national initiative for strengthening cohesion and securing the future”. It simply means supporting the approach of president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who by the way was the one to propose the idea of an internal front to face challenges and threats.

Bengrina’s guests went to the podium one after the other and they all expressed their “support to the political and socio-economic reforms that the president of the Republic implemented”, noting that “mobilizing all of the nation’s forces in order to defend the vital interests of the nation and its constant positions under the leadership of president Tebboune”. A support that can be read, politically, as subscribing to continuity and not as an advocacy for an alternative.

Abdelkader Bengrina can claim that his initiative does not have any electoral motivations, but it is hard to believe his speeches. “This event is not tied to an electoral stake”, he maintained, as if to protect himself form the accusations of MSP which only saw in his manoeuvering electoral intentions.

Less than 15 months way from the 2024 president election, it is hard not to see the electoralist calculations in Bengrina’s approach. FLN and RND have been mute since the Hirak, and they do not appear to be preparing to run for their own chapels in 2024. They seem to have decided to act as helping forces for the candidate that the “internal front” would make its own.